1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a character input device which includes a key input section and a handwriting input section and is for inputting characters.
2. Description of the Related Art
A handwritten character input device has been put to practical use. The handwritten character input device includes a character input unit to which the user inputs the desired characters by directly operating the character input keys as in the word processor, and a touch panel handwriting input unit. The handwritten character input via the handwriting input unit is character-recognized and the recognized character is input to the handwritten character input device.
Moreover, an electronic dictionary device capable of using a key input character string as a keyword (search character string) to search a dictionary for its semantic content and displaying the retrieved data has been put to practical use.
Furthermore, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2005-165533 has disclosed an electronic dictionary device with a handwriting input function which includes not only a key input unit (keyboard) for inputting a keyword (search character string) for searching the dictionary but also a handwriting input unit and which enables the user to handwrite kanji characters or the like the user cannot read on the handwriting input unit, recognizes the characters, inputs the characters as the keyword (search character string), and displays the dictionary search.
In recent years, electronic dictionary devices have included dictionaries which deal with various languages. There are words, such as Chinese words or Spanish words, which are expressed by unique pronunciations and symbols difficult to input from the character keys and alphabetic keys on an ordinary keyboard. To input such a unique pronunciation and a symbol, it is common practice to input, for example, a special symbol printed on the outside of the top of a key by operating not only the key but also the shift key.
An electronic dictionary device to which the user inputs pinyin, a Chinese pronunciation, in searching a Chinese dictionary for a word corresponding to the pinyin has been considered as disclosed in, for example, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2005-157751.
Compact, large-screen electronic dictionary devices have recently become mainstream. Since the size of the device body, or the keyboard space, is limited and the number of keys is also restricted, it is an important matter how to input language-specific characters or symbols easily and efficiently.
It is, accordingly, an object of the invention to provide a character input device capable of inputting language-specific characters easily and efficiently without changing the configuration of the keyboard.